


[Fade Out]

by SweetSamOfMine (AudreeJo)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Brother Feels, Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Love, Canon-Typical Violence, Demon Dean Winchester, Gen, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt Sam Winchester, Post-Canon, Protective Dean Winchester, Trials-Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:56:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AudreeJo/pseuds/SweetSamOfMine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam is finally close to curing Dean of being a demon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[Fade Out]

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PinkRangerV](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkRangerV/gifts).



> This is one of my favorite ficlets I got to write when I got this prompt in my askbox: "Do a drabble on a happy ending for SPN. Your choice for defining 'happy'."

"Sammy, don’t, it’s not worth it!  _Don’t!_ " Dean sat tied to a chair in the dungeon of the bunker. It had been eight hours, and for the eighth time Sam plunged a syringe into his arm and extracted blood to be injected into Dean. He had watched Dean slowly be broken down from snarling demon to a weeping mess.

Having his brother’s blood running through his veins had hurt far more than Dean had ever anticipated. The process of being cured of being a demon felt like knives all over as his body slowly started to return to its mortal form, but it was the emotions he had forgotten that really stung. It felt like his chest was being squashed by a boulder as the weight of his humanity settled in. But like when Sam had partially cured Crowley, the blood didn’t just awaken him to feeling again, but it forged a partial understanding of Sam himself, as well. For the first time Dean saw his brother’s pain, shame, self-hatred, and uncertainty exactly how it was with no filter of resentment or skew. They were a part of him. Dean could never have prepared himself for how that would hurt him, but beyond that, understanding how much he contributed to all of that in Sam was a unique agonizing bonus.

But that’s not why he was objecting to the last needle. In a sobering moment between the sixth and seventh injection, Dean started pleading with his brother because he simply believed after everything Dean had done, he wasn’t worth Sam’s life. 

Tears spilled down Dean’s face as Sam approached the shackled chair and knelt down beside him. Sam’s skin was sallow, sweat clung to his brow, and red lined his eyes, but there was a smile still on his face. 

"Sammy, please, I’m not worth it."

Sam’s brows pulled together sympathetically before he placed the syringe in Dean’s arm. 

Dean’s head fell in defeat. “Oh Sammy,” he cried, squeezing his eyes tight. “I’m so sorry,” he wept.

"I know," he heard Sam whisper. When Dean looked up, Sam’s arm was glowing orange and bright. 

"You could still let it go! You could still—"

"No, Dean," Sam replied weakly. "We can’t fumble at the one-yard line again. You know that."

And even though Dean would usually object until his dying breath, all the blood in his veins that had come from his little brother stopped him. Instead he nodded, tears still pouring from his eyes. 

Sam slowly reached up with the glowing arm to wipe tears, tenderly, from his brother’s face. As soon as his fingers made contact with Dean’s cheek, Sam’s whole body seemed to burst into pure light. Sam’s hand felt locked on to Dean as the final installment of Dean’s humanhood was restored. He felt the sensation rush all through his arms and legs and settle into his chest.

Simultaneously across the globe, thousands of demon screams were stifled in their throats as they were banished and locked into Hell all at once. The Trials had finally been completed.

As soon as the human sensation in Dean’s body had swirled to a steady beat, Sam disappeared. The white light bursting from him blinked off as his body was there one second then gone the next, and Dean was left to wait for his eyes to adjust in the darkness. 

"Sam!" he cried. But there was no answer. "Sammy!" echoed through the halls of the empty bunker, and then there was silence.

——

Sam sat up in bed with a start, sweat causing his hair to cling to his forehead. He looked around at his bedroom, the light pouring in through the window, and took in deep breaths to try to steady himself. It was a king sized bed with white sheets. There was decor around the room that showed this was a home and not a hotel. And there was an empty spot next to him that showed someone else had slept in this bed with him last night. 

Just then the bedroom door cracked open and a beautiful woman with curly blond hair peeked her head in. “You okay, baby? I thought I heard you yell out.” It was Jess, or at least Jess as she would have been had she not died a decade before.

Sam sat shocked and confused. He couldn’t answer at first.

She entered the room and came to sit down beside him as her concern grew. She pushed the clumps of hair back behind his ears, then dragged her thumb down his cheek. “Sam, what’s wrong?”

He grabbed her hand. “Is this… heaven?”

Jess snorted. “Hah, if you like,” she joked, leaning in to kiss his face. “Did you have a nightmare?”

The dank and bloody dungeon was fading into a memory like a dream, so maybe it had been one? Sam couldn’t tell. The longer he was in front of Jess, the more real it felt. “I guess so,” he replied. “I’m okay now.”

"Good," Jess said, standing up. "Because I’ve got to take the girls to swim lessons this morning, and I’d like help getting them ready. And, later, you may need to be the one to take them over to Dean and Lisa’s while I get ready for that Firm dinner thing you have going on tonight. It would probably save time so we don’t have to drop them off on the way. We really should take Dean and Lisa out for dinner as a ‘thank you’ or something later this week."

As Jess revealed detail after detail about his life, it was like Sam was just finding out about them while also having always known them at the same time. His face was a mixture of surprise and amusement, and the dark, bloody reality he woke up from faded even more. 

"Alright, sounds good!" he said, pushing himself off the bed, and grabbing Jess up in a big bear hug. He breathed her in and she was familiar and comforting and every happiness he could recall. She pulled away slightly to look up at him, an eyebrow cocked in question. 

"You’re in such a great mood! You sure you just woke up from a nightmare?"

"You know," Sam searched his thoughts. "I can’t even remember what it was about." 


End file.
